A 12-year-old boy from Queens, NY, drowned June 29 in a backyard pool on Partridge Drive.
According to published reports, the incident occurred around 4 p.m., when Roger Yang, 12, was swimming with his 10-year-old cousin. According to police, he was at the home visiting relatives. The boy slipped from the shallow end into the deep end of the in-ground pool and was unable to stay afloat.
Yang’s 10-year-old cousin tried to alert his 33-year-old aunt, who initially thought he was joking. After a few minutes, she looked back and saw the boy was under water and unresponsive.
The aunt and another family member pulled the boy out of the water and called 911, but efforts by the responding officer to perform CPR were unsuccessful. The Plainsboro EMS transported the boy to the University Medical Center at Princeton, where he was pronounced dead. A North Brunswick officer who spoke Mandarin Chinese was called to Plainsboro to speak with the family.
“Plainsboro Township detectives responded to the scene to investigate and after extensive interviews with the family, determined the death to be accidental, and the boy likely did not know how to swim,” stated a press release. The Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy.
Property tax records for 4 Partridge Court show the family purchased the home in April, 2008. The property owners are listed as Sufen Chen and Shu Zhen Lin.
